Apple May Have Fixed MacBook Pro's Flexgate Flaw

Earlier this year, reports sprang up about Flexgate, a MacBook Pro controversy affecting 2016 and later MacBook Pros that would display inconsistent lighting at the bottom of the screen. Thankfully, a new report suggests Apple's at least trying to solve this issue, which costs $700 to fix on existing notebooks due to full screen replacements.

The gadget vivisectors at iFixit have revealed that the 2018 MacBook Pro solves this issue with an infinitesimally small tweak. By simply extending a display cable by 2mm in length, Apple may have prevented the issue from popping up on newer MacBook Pro models, according to the firm.

iFixit wasn't the first to notice this, as they were alerted to the change by MacRumors user Olivia88, who was poking around inside their 2018 13” MacBook Pro and saw that the cable seemed to be longer than previously known. iFixit looked inside their 15-inch 2018 MacBook Pro, and found a similarly longer cable. Based on this evidence, iFixit posits that Apple's made this change on all 2018 MacBook Pros.

Taylor Dixon, a teardown engineer at iFixit stated the change gives "the backlight cable more room to wrap around the board and not come into contact with the board as the laptop is opened past 90 degrees," which will hopefully lead to less wear on the cord, and prevent failure.

iFixit has yet to see the issue come up on their 2018 models, but since Flexgate became known earlier in 2018, years after the 2016 MacBook Pro was released, it may take a while before we know how durable this cable is. The firm blames the existence of the issue on Apple's continued efforts to slim down its products, which have also led to issues with its failure-prone, super-thin Butterfly-switch keyboards.

Henry is a senior writer at Laptop Mag, covering security, Apple and operating systems. Prior to joining Laptop Mag — where he's the self-described Rare Oreo Expert — he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. You can find him at your local pro wrestling events, and wondering why Apple decided to ditch its MagSafe power adapters.